abysmal

Plenty of questionable design choices, yet they all still work — and work surprisingly well. The linear world design fits perfectly, as does the skill tree combined with the hybrid combat system. Even the huge, empty open world in Chapter 11 has its own charm.

im giving this game review 9/10!!!!!

PROS
- voice acting
- mission/sidequests
- chapter 11 (aka farming mode)
- soundtracks is od
- superboss (mission 64)

CONS
- chocobo riding is od slow

This is my favourite game ever. I love the characters, the story might be a bit clunky and the pacing is a bit slow, but overall the experience is one of the best one can have in a RPG.

The "realtime turnbase" combat system is the best to ever exist, rewarding strategy, tactics, and the depth in placement and combat macro (paradigm system) has a depth I've never found in any other game ever. It is not easy to learn and hard to master, but each playthrough is so drastically different due to the skill you've aquired.
I strongly advise you check online for guides and tutorial, otherwise most of the depth can be quite obfuscated and it's easy to rely on the "press X to win" appearance of the game (due to the "auto battle" button, the true game is in the paradigm shift mechanic).

The PC port is quite bad though, and requires some comminity patches to work correctly (https://github.com/rebtd7/FF13Fix), but please don't let this detail make you not play this wonderful game

Such a poor port for a fantastic game, still a lot of crashes even with mod patches... I hope we get a remaster soon.

Literal pile of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

is good thumbs up emoji

Having a lot of fun with this game, I think it got more hate than it deserved. Was shocked to realize Lightning's VA also voices Liara from Mass Effect!

The steam port crashes way to frequently. Square needs to update this and fix the issues with crashes. Still happens even after ten years.

I think this game is fine, but it could be a lot better. I honestly feel like it has great ideas, but it also has too many annoying things, so it is easy to complain. After a boring (more on this later) and very, very linear start, it improves as you go forward, and It definitely had its moments. If you enjoy the genre I'd give this a try.

The visuals are quite good, and some scenes are well done and convey things effectively, even if I don't love the story (it has its moments too). Other scenes can be a bit bizarre.

I enjoyed the combat system, and it is one of the strong points of the game for me. But also, I'd like being able to have more choices.


Now for some of the annoyances, and sorry for the rant.


- Game systems are introduced too gradually(Restarting the game would be a pain, things are kept too simple for far too long) AND some of them are badly explained.
- I guess it was made in order for you to learn, but you are forced to play a needless ammount of bland sections with different skillsets. These are mostly simple, feel artificial and slow down the pace too much.
- Dialogues can be too simple and stereotypical. Specially early.
- I don't like having my team members changed in the cutscene right before a bossfight without allowing me to spend my points on the skill tree and choosing the equipment.
- The economy in this game feels useless for a big chunk of it
- Character "Skill trees" end up being way too basic, I think they run out of ideas for late game.
- Even if you can do a lot with the skills they give you, some of the game battles feel like a stat check. I know this won't resonate with a lot of the fans, but I don't feel a lot of accomplishment if I just win because I farmed for the stats, instead of solving a problem .
- Some of the main characters feel dumb and annoying
- Some antagonists could be more interesting, but they don't feel fleshed out at all. Maybe if you read all the optional texts you can learn more about them (?)
- I don't know if there is some guide, but the optional missions seem to require a crazy ammount of walking and backtracking
- Some battles get a little repetitive
- I don't like using summons here and only use them in very specific situations.
- Upgrading a character is needlessly slow, and it has a loading screen.